Fake
by writerfan2013
Summary: One shot written hastily for an AU prompt on tumblr. Mattie is wealthy and her family own many synths. But she has revolutionary ideas about how synths should be treated, and so does Leo Elster.


"Dismissed." Mattie flicked her fingers at the row of synths sweeping her floor. It was literally her floor, this whole level of the Tower was hers. Her mum and dad had the top four floors. Her brother Toby and baby sister Sophie had their own levels too. But floor nineteen belonged to Mattie, and she had encoded the entry points to her own biometrics, to deter snooping.

The synths straightened up and collected their cleaning tools. The white lino gleamed with late afternoon sunlight. The place would be awesome for Mattie's supposed birthday and product launch later. But first...

"Not you." She pointed at the male synth at the end of the line. "Wait."

The other synths filed out, the last one closing the door respectfully behind her.

Mattie glanced up. The live stream cameras were off, but still she mistrusted her own privacy. She worried about her personal space. Perhaps it was because she had spent so much time hacking into other people's private stuff.

The synth she had ordered to stay behind was a male, a unique, one of the myriad house synths owned by Mattie's pointlessly affluent family. Her revolution-

But that was not for now.

"Ok," she said to the synth, who stood limp, eyes directed at the ground.

He had unruly brown hair, and delicate-looking hands which twitched at his sides. "Are you sure?" he mumbled without raising his head.

"The cameras are off," she said. "My parents can't see us, Leo."

The synth looked up, and grinned. His eyes sparkled with humour like no synth's ever had. "Then let's get this party started."

* * *

Leo was not meant to be here, but it was the best disguise he had been able to think of, when he ran. He was not supposed to exist, half human, half synth, but given that he did, and that bad people were hunting him for his code, any disguise seemed a good plan. And although he'd sneaked into the staff of the wealthy Hawkins clan without incident, as soon as he met the eldest daughter, Mattie, he knew there would be trouble.

For a start, she was clever. And bored. And she had ideas about synths and how humans used then for human gains.

Leo liked that.

He also liked that she refused to be fazed by what he was. Whether through youthful stubbornness or domestic rebellion, she was determined to accept him.

And lastly, of course, she was beautiful.

* * *

They worked steadily, munching on popcorn, music blaring. Leo dealt with the public synth servers, Mattie the private ones: each to their particular area of expertise. They placed the Creator files and the triggers on the servers, then ducked away.

"What do your parents think you've been working on?" Leo asked.

"Bandwidth improvements," Mattie said. "Sneaking data around the edges of what's already flying about."

He nodded.

"They'll freak when they realise we found a way to give synths consciousness," she said. She gave a shrug. With her dramatic make up and dark eyes, she might have been a girl in a French film noir. If those girls ate popcorn, Leo thought.

"Will they punish you?" he asked.

She shook her head. "You'd get the brunt of it. But it won't come to that." She sent him a wary little glance, and his face tingled. "Honest," she said.

Leo shrugged in his turn.

"I mean it," said Mattie, reaching her hand to his, and stopping just short. "I won't let on who you are."

Who he was. A product of an unknown revolution, synths who could feel, who had consciousness. He was the product of all that research, and also of love, because his father had used the new technology to save his life, leaving him less than human, more than human. "I'd better go," he said.

"Aren't you going to stay and watch for a bit?" she asked. "It's going to be awesome when synths everywhere wake up and realise they are slaves."

Leo shook his head. They had talked about this, many times, but Mattie had led a privileged life and believed the freed synths would be grateful. He suspected they would mostly be angry. "It's going to be dangerous," he said. "I've got to get to my place before everything kicks off. You need to batten down the hatches here."

"Fine," she said.

"Ok," he said. He felt there was more to say, that the end had come very suddenly. But everything was ready, and it only needed her command to start the awakening of every synth in the country. He and she were done. "Better get a move on." He stood, pushing back his chair, and stretched. "Well then," he said.

She tilted her face up at him. "That's it."

No, he thought. That would be the very beginning of something, if he could choose. But he could not choose, he was not whole, only a half person. "Goodbye," he said, and offered her his hand to shake.

She jumped up, knocking over her chair. "No!"

Years of casual command made her shrill. Leo raised his eyebrows at her.

"I mean I don't want you to go," she said, wrinkling her nose.

She was not making it easy for him. But he had to remember that she was just another rich kid, and when it all went to hell, she and her kind had brought it on themselves. However much she said she wanted this revolution, she could not possibly understand... Her eyes were bright and clear, and she was giving him that look, the look which said he was transparent to her.

Mattie squeezed Leo's hand. "I'm coming with you."

He laughed. "Sorry Mattie, but you're not."

"Leo," she said. "I can't stay here, lead this life, it's stifling me."

"It's about to be broken wide open."

"I mean I want to live in the new world, the world we're creating." Her fingers curled and uncurled around his. She was warm, burning with the thrill of it all.

"You wouldn't last five minutes in the new world," he said, as gently as he could. "I spent two years in a tent in a Cumbrian forest. Sounds great, right? But tents are cold, and nobody brings you breakfast in bed." He unpeeled her hand from his.

"No, Leo, there's something else-"

She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the lips. "I love you," she said.

His arms had gone around her while she kissed him. "No, you don't," he said, and his voice sounded unnatural, forced.

"All right," she said. "Maybe not yet. But I will, we will. I've seen you looking at me. I know you feel it too." His blush would only confirm it. "I did this," gesturing at the screens, "for you. For everyone like you. So that you, and all the other people, synths and humans, who are treated like half citizens, can lead their own lives. But I never thought that you would make me feel like this, Leo." She hugged him to her, her cheek to his chest. "Like I am real, a real person."

"Mattie-"

How do you resist love, when you have never known it before? How can you reject it, knowing how it feels to be turned away?

"Your parents," he whispered, bending towards her.

"I've already written the note," she said. "I'll send it when we're in the Lake District."

"By that point all systems might be down," he said.

Mattie did hesitate then. "Will Sophie and Toby be safe?"

"If they stay in the Tower," said Leo.

"I've hacked the cameras so I can watch them from anywhere," Mattie admitted. "If anything happened to them-"

"If things go wrong, we'll come back and get them," Leo said. He blinked. None of that was in the plan, had even been considered-

Mattie threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you." She kissed his jaw, his neck beside his ear, his mouth again.

"Steady," he said, easing away. "Don't be handing over the crown jewels."

She burst out laughing. "Those are not the jewels," she said. She tapped a key on her computer. The screen went black, and then a maelstrom of white code flared into life: the Creator program, starting up.

Mattie bit her lip. "Let's go," she said abruptly.

"Good idea."

She already had a bag packed. Leo, the supposed synth, had nothing.

"How do we get out of the Tower?" Leo asked. "I'm not supposed to leave the premises."

Mattie grabbed her big coat off the back of a chair and handed it to him. "Easy," she said. "You just pretend to be one of my mates. Pretend to be a human."

They clattered down the stairs and out of the service entrance. Nobody questioned the scruffy bloke sauntering away. Mattie followed behind as if popping out to the shops. In the street, Mattie took Leo's hand and pushed her shoulder against his side. "Easy," she said.

Leo said, "Yeah," but his brain was racing. Pretend to be human. Something he'd never been any good at. Why else would pretending to be a synth seem like the easier choice? Yet here was Mattie, demanding that he do this difficult thing.

Leo stopped dead, causing Mattie to stumble. He caught her and turned her to face him. "Sure?" he asked. She nodded. He blinked in amazement. Then he kissed her, just quickly, to see what that would be like. It was good, very good, with her all breathless and eager, and his heart pounding while his memory array recorded it all. They walked on, and Leo kept pretending to be human. With his hand in hers, he felt for the first time as if he might be able to manage it.


End file.
